By Your Side
by beatgoeson654
Summary: COMPLETE! SemiDramatic JC Fluff? Why, yes. Yes it is. JC confession story told around a semidisasterous trip to Jupiter right before Cindy's birthday. JC obviously, with minimal SL. And as always, Carl and no one.
1. Show & Tell

**By Your Side**

**Here's a riddle for you: Who hasauburn hair, wrote this story, and doesn't own Jimmy Neutron?**

**Answer: Me.**

**Go read.**

**

* * *

**

**Chapter 1**

**Jimmy's POV**

"Um, and as you can see, it's highly advanced technology, but also fairly dangerous. If used on a human, they can go unconscious for up to 8 hours, but that isn't highly likely, as it's not quite finished yet, and as it's not to be used for such..."

I, Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius, was halfway through my show-and-tell, where I was currently showing off my newest invention.

I did a quick scan of the room as I talked and in one sweep, I could see that absolutely no one was listening. They were even less attentive than they normally would have been on a Friday afternoon such as this one.

I glanced to my right; Miss Fowl was... asleep? Sheen was simultaneously picking his nose and playing with one of his many Ultra lord action-figures under his desk. Carl was staring at the ceiling and humming a song that was probably either about llamas or... my mom.Gross. Libby was bobbing her head and mouthing the words to the song playing in the headphones that were obviously hidden under her braided black hair.

And then there was Cindy... ah Cindy. Cindy Vortex. I could barely look at her without the usual torrent of emotions welling up inside of me. Ever since we had gotten back from the island, I could no longer admit anything to myself other than the complete truth: I love her.

I love her so much, and yet I could not bring myself to tell her, because then things would change. In spite of myself, I love the competition we have, and our arguments, and if she shot me down, I would look stupid, and James Isaac Neutron hates looking stupid more than anything else. Yet, recently, things had changed.

We had only just gone to Mars to tap into the hydro-quantum energy source the Martians had, and I had admitted, in front of all our friends, that Cindy distracted me. I could remember my exact words, "I just think you're pretty smart...and smell nice... and you kinda distract me... sometimes..."

To my surprise, she had simply seemed... pleased, I remembered. And I felt like we had been almost flirting back and forth a lot lately, but I wasn't going to admit it, even to myself. So, just forget I said it.

As I continued my presentation, I was pondering to myself the situation that had happened the previous afternoon. Sheen and I were at the Candy Bar. Cindy's party was that coming Monday night, and she had been passing out invitations. Her actual birthday was on Tuesday.

I wasn't particularly shocked when Sheen got an invitation, as he was Libby's boyfriend, and Libby was Cindy's best friend, but I was a little surprised I didn't receive one, as the five of us had been through so much together. But who was I kidding?

I really loved Cindy, I supposed, but I'd never told her this. Plus, I could never tell whether or not she shared my feelings. I was a little disappointed that she hadn't invited me; I would have liked to go. It was fine, though... but I half hoped she wouldgive me an invitation some time in the next few days.

Plus, I had the perfect present...beyond perfect.

* * *

**Cindy's POV**

Neutron had stopped talking, I noticed. I stopped pretending not to listen, and looked up at the boy I secretly loved, and to my shock, he was looking right at me, seemingly lost in thought.

Our eyes locked, and Jimmy shook his head, as if shaking out of a trance. Then, someone (I think it was Butch) shot a rubber band at Jimmy, hitting him in the face. Neutron dropped his invention, and without uttering another word, or even finishing his show-and-tell, he picked it up, lowered his eyes, and shuffled dejectedly back to his desk.

I wasn't very happy with Butch for firing the rubber band at the time, but I would be ever so thankful for it later.

I squirmed slightly in my seat, bit my lip, and turned to talk to Jimmy, "That was..." I started.

"I know," he sighed, "terrible..."

"No... really good," I finished. I felt bad about inviting Sheen to my birthday party right in front of him. He had seemed hurt, so I decided maybe it was time to be nice... for now.

"Really?" Jimmy turned to face me.

I bit my lip again and nodded. Why did he make me so nervous? He smiled and I melted.

"Um, what was the invention called again?" I asked semi-sweetly.

"Oh, it's called the _Electrostatic Force Inducer_, for now. As soon as I work out all the bugs, I'll give it a final name. Um, listen, Vortex, I was thinking-" he opened his mouth to say something more when there was a loud squaaaawk from the front desk, and Miss Fowl slid off her desk, finally waking up.

I closed my eyes in annoyance at the interruption... he was obviously going to say something important. _"I was thinking..." _Jimmy was always thinking... I wondered what he was trying to say as I turned back to face the front, and Miss Fowl sprang up, seemingly unaware of her surroundings for a moment.

"Okay claaaasss," Miss Fowl warbled, "Now today, since it's the last day of school, we will have a final test on everything we've learned in sciiiiience this year..."

* * *

**Eh. So, okay. I really wasn't sure I was going to post this story. I wrote it back in January, the first one I ever wrote, and I'm really not sure how much I like it... So basically, the posting of this story will be run by the reviewers. If you think I should continue, I will. If you don't, I'll be kinda sad but I will stop posting chapters. No blantant evil flaming though. That's just insensitive and would severely lower my self-esteem.**

**Anyways, this was just a set-up chapter. I'm pretty sure it gets better. Remember the details, though. They do come in handy to predicting the rest of the story. **

**Thanks, guys! Please R&R**


	2. The Candy Bar

Thank you SO much for the reviews, you guys! Here's the much requested 2nd chapter!

As you can tell, the plot kinda takes the backseat to all the J/C in this one, but, hey, that's the way Ilike it. R&R, hope you enjoy!

**Chapter 2**

**Jimmy's POV**

The rest of the day passed without incident, and after school was over, I decided to go with Carl and Sheen to the Candy Bar to celebrate the end of the school year.

We walked in to find the hangout packed with kids, rejoicing in the start of summer vacation. The sounds of excited chatter and music from the jukebox filled the air.

"You guys go find a booth for us, and I'll go get us some milkshakes," I suggested, feeling the small twinge of foreboding I always did when I trusted Carl and Sheen to do something.

When I turned away, sure enough, Sheen spotted Libby and Cindy, and made a beeline straight for Libby. He scooted into the booth next to her, and Carl slid in after him. Neither noticed a look of extreme annoyance on Cindy's face as she moved into the opposite and furthermost outside edge of the semicircular booth, but I swear to Goddard, it must have been there.

At the counter, I paid for the shakes and carried them off, with one in each hand and another in the crook of my arm. I skimmed the crowded restaurant for Carl or Sheen.

I found them, and to my feigned displeasure, I observed their sitting-mates.

I set the shakes on the table, and met Carl's eyes, imploring him to move over, so I could sit next to him. Carl didn't get the message, so I swung my eyes over to Cindy, who gave me small smile and slid over, allowing me to sit down next to her in the crowded booth. Once I was over my small shock, I addressed my friends.

"Ladies, if you don't mind, I had a small matter to discuss with Carl and Sheen,"

"We're not going anywhere, this was our booth first!" Cindy replied, and Libby nodded, and Cindy gestured to Carl and Sheen, "Anything you wanna say in front of these two yahoos you can say in front of us,"

"Fine," I glared at her and she stuck out her tongue.

When I was finished, I searched everyone's faces to see what they thought of my plan.

"So, let me get this straight..." Cindy turned to face me in the booth, "You want to go rock collecting in deep space, and you figured it might be a good time if we all came along, like a fun little field trip. Sounds like a great idea." Her words were dripping with sarcasm.

I replied coolly, "No, I wanted Carl and Sheen to come. You don't have to come," I observed her features carefully, "if that's what you want."

**Cindy's POV**

_No, _I thought, _That's not what I want at all. _I secretly couldn't resist the thought of an extended space trip with Jimmy. I noticed a second too late that my face was clearly betraying my thoughts, as Jimmy was eyeing me strangely, with a hint of a grin on his face.

"I want Libby to come!" Sheen practically shouted and Libby beamed.

After a short discussion, Libby made a decision for us, "I guess we can go, right Cind?" she practically begged.

"As long as we're back by Monday night, I guess." I shrugged.

Jimmy stiffened, I couldn't help but notice. My party was Monday night... He seemed to stop and think for a moment before shaking his head as if to rid himself of a sensation.

"The main reason we're going is that I need some kind of space rock to complete my collection of organic elements. It doesn't really matter which planet, we go to, as long as I can collect rocks at it. I need a huge sample. I personally would prefer to go to Jupiter. Any objections?"

"I think we should go to Venus," I spoke up, though it was obvious that his question had been rhetorical.

"Well, we're going to Jupiter." Jimmy stated, and clenched his fists as if steeling himself for the long argument that would undoubtedly follow.

"Oh yeah, and why should we go to Jupiter?" I gave him my best death glare. Jimmy gave me a look of his own and shook it off before continuing.

"I want to analyze the unique chemical structure of its material makeup..." Jimmy rolled his eyes at the blank look we were all giving him. Turning back to me, "Well, why should we choose your dumb idea?"

"It's not a dumb idea, and anyways, I bet you _really_ only want to go to Jupiter because it's the only thing in the universe bigger than your giant head! It might make it look smaller."

Jimmy stopped with this mouth open and his face flushed with anger, and I grinned triumphantly. I knew I could make him madder than anyone, and I drank it all in.

Five minutes and several dozen insults later, we somehow decided on Jupiter. I tried to salvage my pride by telling Jimmy that it had been a pointless argument anyway, "one stupid desolate planet was the same as the next stupid desolate planet..." and all that, so I didn't mind not getting my way.

My thoughts turned to what the next few days would hold on the trip into space. Maybe I would get up the nerve to invite him to my party. I would never tell anyone this, especially Libby, that I was mostly having the big boy/girl party so Jimmy could come. Too bad I had chickened out when the chance to invite him came up...

"You coming, Vortex?" Jimmy jerked me out of my thoughts. Looking around, I could see my friends had all gotten up and were starting to leave.

Several hours later, (around ten o'clock) Sheen, Libby, Carl, and I all met in Jimmy's front lawn before we climbed aboard the astrocar. Jimmy was already sitting in his customary captain's chair. He smiled when we got in and-unless I was imagining it- even more so when I sat down in the co-pilot's seat, right next to his.

"Okay ladies and gentlemen," he announced, and, if this was possible, I could actually see him mentally resisting the urge to add '_and Cindy_,' to that, "I trust you're all set with your parents, having given them the proper excuses and such. We are on our way to Jupiter. We should be there by morning, so just make yourselves comfortable, and get some rest, I guess."

I relaxed in my chair and watched Jimmy work the controls of the astrocar we had won on _Intergalactic Showdown_. I couldn't help but think wistfully of the time when we had come back from defeating Meldar, and Jimmy and I had nearly kissed, (or "practiced our version of the 'Gorlockan Seal of Trust',") when we were interrupted by a large crash from outside -the incoming rock-mail from that alien girl, April.

How many times had something like that happened? I could count at least three or four times we had been interrupted when we were about to...

Thinking about these times gave me mixed emotions, and they still do, as I thought Jimmy must share my feelings, because it takes two people to (almost) kiss, right? _But surely if it truly was mutual, something would have happened between us by now..._ I became lost in my thoughts, staring out the windshield into the beauty of the space we were fast approaching.

**Jimmy's POV**

Soon we were through the many layers of the earth's atmosphere and out into space. After I was satisfied I put the ship on autopilot and spun my chair slightly to look behind me. Carl appeared to be napping, and was rubbing his own stomach, and softly, I could hear him singing, "Nonny, nonny, nonny." Sheen had fallen asleep on Libby's shoulder, who was asleep as well, and she had a small smile on her face.

I swiveled further, and saw Cindy staring out into space; her eyes sparkling with the light of the trillions of stars around us. As if sensing my stare, she spoke, "Beautiful, isn't it?"

In a moment of rare weakness, without taking my eyes off of her, I replied, "Yes, really beautiful." But I was not referring to the universe that was passing us by, as she was. Too enraptured by her beauty, I continued to stare.

Cindy turned back to me, and looked at me those deep, emerald eyes that make frequent appearances in my best dreams. She opened her mouth, but no sound came out, so I simply smiled at her, with some difficulty, tore myself from her gaze, turning back to the controls.

"It's getting late. You might want to take a cue from those guys and get some rest. We have a big day tomorrow." I glanced over to her, and she had that defiant look on her face as she always did when someone suggested she do something, "But you can do whatever you want, of course. It's up to you," I quickly added, and I once again turned back to steer the ship.

Cindy sighed, "Fine... Um...good night, Neutron."

I smiled, ignoring the shiver that had just run up my spine, "'Night."

Hours later, as I monitored the astrocar's course closely, I couldn't help my gaze from drifting over to Cindy, who was still seated two feet to my right breathing softly as she slept. She was so... I couldn't help but sigh and smile; it was in this state of utter contentment that I drifted into sleep.

* * *

**R&R!**


	3. On the Surface

**Despite Greg's best wishes, but going along with the wishes of every other single reviewer, I've decided to continue this story! Yay!**

**2 Notes: This chapter is pretty long… pretty sure it's longer than the other ones put together. It's also in the third person, as I originally wrote it.**

Since they were in deep space, it was still dark when Jimmy woke up, but according to his newly upgraded watch, it was eight in the morning back in Texas.

After a quick check of their coordinates, he decided they were less than an hour away from landing on the planet surface, so he quietly began packing supplies in his hypercube.

Over the next twenty minutes, the rest of the group slowly awoke. Sheen got in his vibrating chair, and Jimmy jumped back in my seat to take over the controls.

"So Jimmy," Sheen began, "when we get to Jupiter, can I search for the staff of ultra-power left there by Ultra Lord in episode #562, attack of the Brain-melting-space-fiends of..."

Libby, Cindy, Carl, and Jimmy all interjected with a firm, "No."

"Awwww, dang," Sheen whined, "That's the only reason I came."

"Sheen," Carl said soothingly, "We are going to Jupiter so we can classify their unique species of space llama. They can defy gravity and they are extremely cuddly. " Carl hugged himself and sighed.

"Carl, I tried to explain this to you earlier," Jimmy sighed, "There are no species of llamas native to Jupiter, or for that matter, any of the other planets beside our own."

"You'll see! They exist!" Carl pouted, and Jimmy shook his head and prepared to land the astrocar while Carl murmured to his llama doll in the back.

"Carl, we're going to find the Brain-melting-space-fiends, not some stupid llamas!"

"No, we're not, and llamas aren't stupid!" Carl squinted his eyes in anger, hugging his llama doll so hard that it was a miracle its head didn't fall off.

"So, now that we know why we're _not _here..." Libby swung her eyes over to Jimmy, imploring him to give instructions as to exactly what they were going to do now that they had actually come millions of light years. He had been a little sketchy on the details back on Earth.

"Well, I told you, I need to collect a great volume of space minerals of different elements and forms for my collection in the lab." he stated.

"Yeah, but what are _we_ going to do? You haven't told us all that yet,"

"Well, naturally, I'm going to need some assistance."

"Okay. Um, no." Cindy replied matter-of-factly.

"And why not?" He gritted his teeth.

"Because, next to one of your other little science reports, that would be the most boring thing anyone's ever heard of...ever," Cindy crossed her arms on her chest and shook her long blonde ponytail in exasperation.

"I need these rocks to complete my collection. If not that, then what do you suggest we do? I told you that was my mission before we left, but you still wanted to come. If we don't do that, then what do _you_ suggest we do?"

"I don't know, but something that won't put us to sleep would be nice!" She nearly yelled. The others reluctantly agreed.

"All right, fine, Vortex, you can decide what we do, but you have to make all the decisions and take the fall for everything. No crying to me when something you do messes us up or puts our lives in danger!"

Cindy bristled, as if to ask how he dared assume that with her in charge something would mess up. She opened her mouth and pointed her finger in his face and got ready to let him have a piece of her mind. Instead he calmly took her hand and put it back down, and didn't let go for a second, maintaining eye contact as he did so. She promptly shut her mouth with a snap, because like water putting out a fire, his touch and his look had just extinguished the flames of her anger, just as he had known it would. He enjoyed what little power he had.

"Cool it girl," Libby said cautiously, misreading her friend's sudden silence.

Cindy fired herself up again, "All right Neutron, you're on. You just wait; my plan will be ten times better than anything you and your massive head could cook up." Cindy glared at him as she had done a million times before.

"So what are we doing, Cindy?" Carl cowered slightly. It was no secret that he was a little afraid of her.

"Umm, I don't know yet." Cindy admitted, and Jimmy let out a triumphant laugh.

"You don't even have an idea!"

"Well, somehow my nonexistent idea is still better than your mind-numbingly dull one." He rolled his eyes at this comment, "So, don't worry, Neutron, I'll have one by the time we land."

Jimmy just stared at her, puzzling in the aftermath of the most pointless argument he'd ever had.

Cindy retreated to the back of the astrocar, where she and Libby chatted animatedly about her party on Monday. Jimmy went back to steering the ship, but he couldn't help but feel a twinge of sadness as he listened to the plans of the great party that he wasn't invited to. It sounded like it would be really fun. There was going to be a scary movie projected onto a big screen in the backyard, and games, dancing, and swimming in Cindy's pool.

-----

"Steady... Steady... and... touchdown." Jimmy narrated as they landed with a bump on the planet's surface.

"Touchdown! I win!" Sheen shouted, pumping his fist in the air.

"What?" Everyone else said in unison.

"Nothing," Sheen muttered.

The door opened, and everyone climbed out onto the desolate surface of the planet.

"Well, we're here, now what do we do?"

"Um..." Cindy avoided Jimmy's gaze, "Okay so I don't really have a plan. I guess we could just do Neutron's idea, and try to have some fun with it. What is there even to do on Jupiter? Stupid boring idea in the first place... Now, um, we can split into two groups to collect different types of minerals, I guess, like Neutron suggested."

"I'm with Sheen!" Carl shouted, to everybody's surprise.

"Me too!" Libby said, to no one's surprise.

There was utter silence following these words. Jimmy gave Cindy a sidelong glance, and she tapped her foot, not looking at him.

Everyone expected him to fight this arrangement, but to Cindy's surprise, Jimmy just said, "Fine. Cindy and I will go out collecting rocks and putting them in my hypercube. You three can use Goddard as mining equipment; he's really strong. Make sure you stay close to the astrocar, so we can leave as soon as we find you. I want to get off this planet tonight, and no exceptions. Is everyone all set? Anyone want anything?"

"I would like a canary to talk to while I watch TV and eat soup," Carl said. Everyone stared at him.

"I'm going to ignore that." Jimmy muttered, and they walked away.

"Way to go, Neutron." Cindy gestured to the backs of their retreating friends, "We're stuck together for the rest of the day. Why didn't you just go with Carl and Sheen and let Libby and I work together?"

Jimmy looked straight ahead, "Because you and Libby wouldn't get anything done. I figured you needed to be separated and supervised,"

"Yeah, like you can supervise me. Be serious," She crossed her arms, turning around to walk backwards, facing him.

"Fine. I needed someone competent to help me."

She was so surprised she tripped, and was about to fall backwards when Jimmy reached out and caught her.

He placed her back on her feet and kept walking.

Cindy stood for a moment, still slightly shocked, and then walked quickly to catch up to him, "What?"

"I needed someone just slightly intelligent to help me. No offense to Carl and Sheen, but that means either you or Libby. Carl would just slow us down, and Libby really likes Sheen and I really-" he stopped, took a deep breath, "I mean, I really needed someone who would actually be able to help,"

"Wow, that was almost a compliment," she raised her eyebrows.

"Almost."

What followed for Jimmy and Cindy was a long, quiet, Jupiterian day of collecting space rocks. Jimmy spoke only to give her complicated instructions every once and a while; other than that it was completely silent. They were both lost in thought. It seemed that neither of them really knew how to act around each other anymore; there were so many questions each were burning to ask the other. The general consensus was as long as they kept busy, with a purpose, everything would be okay.

Several times, they would be working closely and would both go to grab the same rock, and would end up nearly holding hands. Each would blush and say "sorry", secretly loving the innocent contact.

Some time in the afternoon, Cindy stopped gathering rocks and went to take a short walk to soothe her aching muscles. Off in the distance she thought she saw a figure moving, but when she looked again, there was nothing there. Should she mention something to Jimmy? No, it was probably nothing. She walked a little further and thought she saw the outline of a building, or a fortress. She stared at it, and decided that it was probably a rock formation in the distance. The air was shining around it, like a force field. She shook her head and decided she was probably being really paranoid.

Cindy made her way back to Jimmy, who was also taking a break, lying down on a particularly large, flat rock.

She sat down next to him, "I think we're done," he sat up and pulled out his hypercube and looked into it from the hole in the top. She looked down into it too, and their foreheads were touching, and Jimmy could feel his face burning.

"How much will we need?" she asked.

"I don't know," he pulled back, "You're the leader."

She shot him a look, "Listen Neutron, I guess I badmouthed your ideas earlier, and I'm, um, uh, s-sorry." she winced, and seemed to struggle to apologize to him, Jimmy noticed, but the fact that she did at all- he considered this personal growth.

"We should go back and find the others." she started, and she could almost sense Jimmy deflating with disappointment, "but let's not."

He looked back at her, surprised. She just smiled that beautiful smile that just wiped all his worry and coherent thought away.

Someday, he knew he would tell her how he felt. He was **in love with her**, and she needed to know it. But until everything was out in the open, spending time with her without the open animosity was keeping him sane.

So they sat and talked for about an hour, with little to no hostility between them whatsoever. They ended up lying down on the rock, staring out into the beautifully weird Jupiter sky above, and at some point one of them shifted, and their shoulders were touching, and neither of them bothered to move. They talked about school, classmates, inventions, and past adventures. They were coming close to the subject of the adventure on the island when he finally remembered Carl, Sheen, and Libby were somewhere waiting for them.

They reluctantly got up and walked back, and he caught himself staring at her at least six times, which was dangerous, as he kept nearly tripping over rocks and into holes.

_What was that about_? Jimmy thought to himself. _Did I just have a pleasant conversation with Cindy?_ He couldn't help but smile at the possibility that they weren't destined to be enemies forever. They made it back to the astrocar, but Sheen, Carl, and Libby weren't there.

Cindy suggested that they follow their footprints, and they did. To Jimmy's annoyance, it took them to a location nearly two miles away, and it was extremely dark by this point, because the planet had rotated and was now no longer facing the sun. Jimmy ended up leading Cindy by the hand while he used some light from the hypercube to guide his way. Halfway there, he remembered he had a few flashlights somewhere in the hypercube, but when he felt Cindy slightly squeeze his hand in the dark as they climbed over a particularly large rock, he decided that maybe they didn't need the flashlights.

"Hey guys." Sheen shouted to them as they approached the group. The two quickly dropped each other's hands.

He could tell by one glance that they would not be heading back to the astrocar to leave the planet tonight. He glanced over to Cindy, slightly more annoyed by this point, but she shrugged, and Jimmy took the whole situation in stride.

"Okay, so I guess we'll just set up camp here and then head back to the astrocar in the morning," he sighed, "How'd you guys do today? Did you get lots of minerals for me?"

As soon as Sheen, Carl, and Libby finished telling them about their day, the campfire Jimmy had made from components in his hypercube was burning out, and they were ready to set up camp for the night.

Goddard immediately opened his body compartment and Jimmy pulled out red blankets embroidered with his Neutron atom symbol in yellow, like his favorite t-shirt. There were four of them ...for five people... "I know I packed five of these." Jimmy said, "Where's the fifth?"

Carl squirmed on the rock where he was sitting, "Um, it may be in the astrocar, Jim. I kind of slept with it last night."

It was freezing cold out, and as soon as Jimmy volunteered to sleep without one, it was noted that he was shivering. There was no argument to this, and each of them grabbed a blanket and tried to find a comfy spot on the hard surface of the planet.

Jimmy lay down right where he stood, and he tried to get sleep to take him, but it was no use.

He fished a new sweatshirt out of his hypercube. It matched the blankets and his favorite red t-shirt and he liked it, but it was nothing like having one of his special blankets. They were specifically engineered to keep whoever was under them at the perfect temperature, no matter what it was outside.

Jimmy was so incredibly cold without one, he couldn't stand it, and as much as Cindy liked to see him suffer, the little voice in the back of her head got the better of her. So as he was about to get up and steal part of Carl's blanket when a much better offer arrived, courtesy of Cindy.

He looked over and saw her laughing at him, "How is any of this funny?" his teeth were chattering terribly as he spoke.

She finished waging the silent battle with herself, before taking an action Jimmy wouldn't forget for some time afterward, "Neutron, here." She stood up with the huge blanket around her shoulders and walked over to him. She threw half of the blanket over him and lay down facing him. His mouth was open in disbelief. She laughed and shut it with one finger, then turned over. She was happier than she could remember being in a long time, and she couldn't erase from her memory the small sigh of satisfaction that had just come from four feet to her left, on Jimmy's side of the blanket. _I will never quite understand you, James Isaac Neutron_, she decided, but she didn't have to understand him to love him.

**WOW! That took SOOO long to change all the pronouns in there, but I did it! Whoo. Sorry it was really long, but please R&R, and as always, no flames, please.**

**Oh and don't forget to tell me whether you prefer it in third person or in P.O.V.s**


	4. The one where it gets all dramatic

**Sorry. Nothing happened under the blanket. They're young and I don't think up or write that kind of stuff.**

* * *

It was probably morning, Jimmy decided. Who could tell when you were in space? Jimmy checked his watch. It was 7:43 AM Earth time. He lay in silence, contemplating the girl he had fallen asleep beside. He'd had several dreams last night, with Cindy starring in all of them. It couldn't help that he had fallen asleep intoxicated by the sweet jasmine scent of her hair. He couldn't seem to get her out of his head, much like the time he had accidentally been exposed to the love pheromone. But this time, he was dead sure there was no love pheromone, and this kind of scared him. 

Her actions last night and all throughout the previous day had confirmed in his heart: she _must_ feel something for him. He opened his mouth, "Cindy, listen," he rolled over and his heart nearly stopped.

She was gone. He felt the spot where she had been. It was cold. His heart turned to ice. He looked around wildly, _Calm down, Jimmy_. He told himself. There was no reason for him to believe that something was wrong.

He jumped to his feet and looked around, throwing off the huge blanket they had shared. Then he stared at the ground where Cindy had been. There were many footprints, and they all appeared to be Cindy's, but the strange thing was, they didn't go anywhere. They just simply stopped.

It was like she had flown away. _Or _been_ flown away_, he realized.

He kneeled down and saw Cindy's pink hair elastic that always held her hair back in her signature ponytail. He knew right then that she had been abducted or worse. Jimmy had never seen Cindy with her hair down, and was pretty sure she wouldn't just randomly leave, anyway, "Libby! Guys! Wake Up! Cindy's gone!"

Soon, they were awake and Jimmy was still sick with fear. He pulled out his hypercube, and dumped out all the rocks that he and Cindy had collected what seemed like ages ago.

"What are you looking for, Jim?" Carl stood by and watched the boy genius feverishly shuffle through his supplies and inventions. He threw aside the Electrostatic Force Inducer from his show and tell, his hypnobeam, the cheese ray, and finally found for what he was so desperately searching.

He held it up. It was the DNA tracker. He turned it on and browsed through the DNA that was already scanned into the machine. Cindy was already on there, and for once, his friends didn't give him any grief or slide in a sly hint about his true feelings for Cindy, they just waited patiently for the results.

He pushed a few buttons, and within a moment his worst suspicions were confirmed. Cindy was nowhere near; at least a few miles away. She couldn't have gotten that far overnight by herself. Why would she have wanted to, anyway? Jimmy sat down. His head hurt and his whole body ached. Was he so worried about her that it caused him physical pain?

"We're on Jupiter! Who or what would have kidnapped her and left the rest of us untouched? And we were all sleeping so close! Why didn't I wake up when she was taken?" None of it made sense.

He looked around. Sheen was comforting Libby, who looked like she was beyond belief. Then the two of them split up to go searching the area again for clues. Carl was standing idly by, looking unsure of what to do next, and completely overpowered by the situation. He seemed to try to compensate by taking out his inhaler and taking a few long puffs.

After a few minutes, Jimmy sensed someone coming up behind him, and he stowed Cindy's hair elastic back in his pocket. He looked to see that it was Libby. She sat down next to him, and her eyes were shining with tears. She tried to smile, "So what's the plan?"

Jimmy turned to look into her tearstained face, "What do you mean?"

"Jimmy, you always have a plan in that huge brain of yours, it's why your head's so big. Now you can't just sit there and tell me that you don't have a plan, because I don't know how, and I don't know why, but the girl you secretly love has been nabbed. So don't let her down."

Libby watched the effect these words had on him. Little did she know, he was flashing back to a time long ago on Yolkus, when he had been trapped in a cell, and their parents were about to be fed to Poultra. "Buck up, mister." Cindy had said, and he had, eventually saving them all. He heard these words in his head and they gave him the same effect they had then. Jimmy immediately started working on a plan.

Libby could almost see the plan forming under his ridiculously tall hairdo. She then said, more to herself than to Jimmy, "I wonder where she is right now..."

Five miles away from the rest of her friends, Cindy Vortex was too tired to be angry any longer. She pushed her bangs out of her eyes and tried another assault on the glowing force field surrounding her. It shocked her again, and she was thrown back into the middle, weaker than before. She sat down on a large, cold rock, and went over in her head what had happened over the past six hours.

She had been sleeping a few feet away from Jimmy, in a state of utter bliss. Then, she had been awoken in the middle of the night by a small noise. She slid out from under the blanket reluctantly and stood up, her body tense and ready to fight. Before she knew it, she was surrounded by a... well, something. She still wasn't exactly sure what. It was like she was trapped under an upside-down drinking glass. She had fought desperately inside it, and shaken her hair out in the process.

Before she knew it, she was being lifted across the planet's surface. She figured she must be on the back of some kind of hovercraft, because the vehicle wasn't making any tracks. She shouted for Jimmy dozens of times, but her small prison was soundproof.

They had come to a stop, and she felt the invisible bottom drop out from under her. She fell to the ground and was dragged into a large, sinister-looking building. She immediately recognized it as the outline of the supposed rock formation she had seen the previous day. And that figure she had seen moving was probably someone spying on them.

"_But who would build a fortress like this on Jupiter?"_ she thought, _"And what do they want with me?" _

She tried to get a good look at the people who had her by the arms; they were masked, but definitely human. She had asked over and over for them to lether go, and what they wanted with her. But each time she got no response from either of them. They had continued to pull her through the hallway, where she searched for some clue of where she was and who owned the building, when she was dragged into the small chamber she sat in now.

Looking around, she supposed it was about 20 by 20 feet, and all the walls were doubly enforced by a glowing blue force field; it was the only source of light in the room.

The floor was exactly like the ground outside. In fact, there was no floor. Were it not for the force field, she could have probably dug down underneath the wall to get out. It was as if the fortress had been newly constructed; just walls placed down onto the planet surface. It could have been putdown yesterday, for all she knew.

She stared around, looking for some way out she hadn't yet thought of. She heard the noise of a door sliding open, and there, framed in the doorway, stood a very short man. Cindy recognized him immediately. He had kidnapped Jimmy and held him as his scientific slave. He had also tried to melt Mount Everest, trick them all into stealing the Egg Drop Jade, tried to blow up the earth with his "big bang bomb", ordered Cindy to be turned into a fish, attempted to kill them all multiple times while making a fake movie, **and** he and his "League of Villains" had kidnapped Jimmy once again, and tried to do away with them another few times. Cindy could not believe she was seeing him again.

"You!" was all she could get out.

"Yes me!" he struck a ridiculously dramatic "evil" pose, "Professor Finbarr Calamitous!"

* * *

**Yay. Anyways, looking back, this is the one where it gets all dramatic and such. It takes kind of a weird turn here... but the J/C and the normality will be back in 2 chapters or so. Worry not! R&R!**

**Oh, and I'm pretty sure there aren't any pronoun mistakes in this one, if there are, just let me live in ignorant bliss. What else? Oh yeah, creative criticism is welcome, but remember, I wrote this story a few months ago, and it's already completely written, so I'm not likely to change anything. I'm pretty much just trying to post it.**


	5. The Cell and More CaptureRepost

**Yay! I fixed my laptop! You'd be surprised at what a girl can do with a little determination and a screwdriver. Sweet. Thanks for the reviews, guys. Haha okay well here's the next chapter. Picks up right where it left off... ahhh okay, here we go.**

**----------------------------------------------------------------**

"Yes me! Professor Finbarr Calamitous!"

"What do you want?" Cindy was angry again, "And why did you _kidnap_ me?"

"Well, it's all part of my very genius, and very **_complete_ **master plan. I'll put it simply so you'll understand it: Jimmy comes to rescue you, my hostage. I force Jimmy to create an invention of my own design that will put the Earth at my mercy, in exchange for your, um, your, um...what's the word? Oh yes, your freedom," Calamitous twitched his little moustache and Cindy just stared at him.

"That is _never_ gonna work," she glared at the tiny old man, "You-"

Calamitous interrupted her rant, "I'd love to stay and chat, but I have evil things to attend to, you know... the um... the um... oh, forget it..." He trailed off and left Cindy standing there in disbelief.

If anything, Calamitous interrupting her just steamed her more. She stared at the force field in front of her. It was still making a small buzzing noise. And, being quite intelligent herself, she could guess that it would still shock her if she tried to get out.

She took off her shoe and hurled it at the electric blue dome surrounding her. It bounced and came back, landing at her feet. It was solid. She continued pacing around her prison.

It was a semi-brilliant plan, she realized as she sat shivering on one of the many rocks that littered the floor. If Jimmy's feelings for her were at least half as strong as hers for him, there was no way he wouldn't come to her rescue.

She ran her hands through her hair; it felt so weird to have it down. She hoped at some point she would wake up and this would all be a dream, and she would still be sleeping next to Jimmy. She closed her eyes and pictured his face. She wanted to see him. She needed to see him...

...He needed to see her. He hadn't spoken in hours, and everyone had noticed. He had told them where they were headed, and that was about it. Even though Carl and Sheen's usual arguments continued, they had a lackluster feel to them.

Jimmy picked up his binoculars and looked into the direction the DNA tracker showed him Cindy was. Who had taken her? He figured he would find out soon enough. They had come a few miles, and with the flat surface, He could just make out the outline of the building where he knew Cindy would be.

He turned around to address Libby, Carl, and Sheen, "You guys need to go back to the astrocar. Contact our parents and tell them that we're fine. Don't mention the whole kidnapping thing. I don't want them to worry... they can't help anyways. Libby, I figure you can probably steer it back here to come pick Cindy and me up after I rescue her. I'm gonna break in, and I'm not sure what I'll find, but Cindy and I will try to meet you back here. And...I'm not sure when this will take place either. Just take Goddard and I'll let you know when I need you."

"There was a lot of 'I'm not sure' in there." Libby noted. She couldn't tell for the life of her why Jimmy would want to go at this alone, and she considered protesting, but she and the boys headed back to the astrocar on Goddard.

Jimmy swallowed hard and began to walk toward the fortress and closer to Cindy.

He was about halfway there when it happened. He took a step and when he placed his foot down, it met nothing but air. Jimmy felt himself fall forward, and suddenly the planet surface disappeared, everything went black, and he felt himself sliding horizontally through a cold metal chute pulled along by wind currents like a wayward Lego in a vacuum cleaner.

Suddenly, the metal tube ended, and Jimmy felt himself drop into an uncomfortable chair. He looked around. He was in a large room. The floor looked like the planet surface, and the walls were made of thick metal. He tried to get up, and noticed that he was strapped to the chair.

Needless to say, this worried him. The metal doors in front of him slid open and someone unexpected walked into the room.

"You!" he strained against his bonds, fuming.

"That's what your dear friend, Cindy Vortex, said. I believe those were her exact words." Calamitous was grinning like an idiot.

Jimmy felt all the blood run out of his face, "Where is she? What have you done with her?"

"Oh she's fine. You'll see her soon, but only if you agree to help me."

"I'll never help you!" he glared at the mad scientist while covertly trying to turn on the laser setting on his watch.

"Oh but you will, because I have your friend, and you're both completely at my mercy."

Slowly realization hit him. Calamitous was right. Jimmy had to get Cindy out of danger, "You have me, now let Cindy go! You don't need her anymore."

"Ah, but I do. Without her, you'll never do as I say. While you build me a new doomsday device to make up for the one you destroyed with that fake Egg Drop Jade."

"What?" Jimmy couldn't believe after so many failed attempts, Calamitous was now out to take over the world again. He had said not too long ago, when he and Jimmy's other enemies had kidnapped Sheen and him, that he was simply out to destroy Jimmy. Now he was back on the world domination thing, apparently.

"You heard me, Jimmy." Professor Calamitous began pacing in front of the chair, "Tomorrow morning, you will finish my doomsday device that will put the whole world at my mercy."

"But why kidnap Cindy?" Jimmy asked, though dreading the answer, "Why not just take me?" he continued struggling with his watch, though less intently.

"You're supposedly a _genius_, Neutron, you figure it out. You're pretty crafty, you undoubtedly would have escaped somehow, but this way, you won't leave without your...um...um..."

Jimmy tuned out, wondering how many times Calamitous was going to involve him in his awful plans for world domination.

"Professor" Calamitous was still talking though, and Jimmy finally tuned in to hear him say, "Sleep on it Jimmy. I'm sure, come morning time, you will accept my offer." He snapped his fingers and walked out, while the same guys who had grabbed Cindy earlier freed Jimmy and led him down a hallway.

Jimmy didn't resist; he had a faint hope they could be taking him to Cindy.

Down the hallway, Cindy sat, still shivering on her rock. Suddenly, the force field around her shut off for just a second and everything was completely dark. She saw the door slide open and heard a thud and a slide, like someone hitting the floor. The force field came back on and Cindy looked over and saw, to her surprise, the source of the commotion was none other than Jimmy.

He stood and brushed himself off, "Hi."

"Hi!" she was so happy to see him she could barely keep herself from running over and throwing her arms around his neck. A couple feet away, Jimmy was trying to master the same urge.

"Are you okay?" he walked over and sat down next to her.

"What's that supposed to mean?" she kept her game face on; he couldn't know how she was feeling inside.

Jimmy gave a small chuckle, "Well, you were kidnapped. So I was wondering: Are you okay?"

"Oh. I'm fine." she was determinedly looking everywhere but at him.

"You're shivering and you seem exhausted. Are you sure you're not cold, and maybe a little bit tired?"

"N-n-n-o," her teeth were chattering, "I'm not sure. I've been in this... cell for so many hours I've lost count. I think I'm handling it pretty well."

"Here," Jimmy took off his new sweatshirt and handed it to her. He would never understand why she had to be so stubborn all the time.

She took the sweatshirt thankfully, discreetly brushing over the embroidered Neutron symbol on the front with her fingers lovingly before putting it on. Jimmy smiled and pretended not to notice.

It was still warm, and it fit her pretty well. Cindy couldn't describe the emotion she felt when she looked down at the symbol on the front, but she couldn't help but smile when she looked down at it.

Jimmy was watching her carefully. Just seeing her again, and being close to her almost made him forget the terrible situation they were in... but he couldn't forget it completely. Cindy felt the same way.

"Where are the guys?" Cindy asked, and Jimmy checked his watch to try and contact them, but the fortress appeared to be disrupting the signal.

"They'll probably be on the astrocar, but I really don't know. They should be okay."

"So... why did that idiot kidnap me, and how exactly did _you_ get here?" she asked curiously. As one could imagine, Cindy was interested to find out how the guy she had just been pining for had just been literally thrown in.

Soon Jimmy had finished his tale, and his explanation of what he thought Professor Calamitous might have planned for the next day.

"...so, he's out to take over the world again..." Jimmy finished, "something that he's not particularly good at. You'd think by now he'd realize: it's just not in the cards."

Cindy laughed a little in spite of herself, and Jimmy smiled, "So what are we going to do?" she asked. They were whispering, as they had both agreed the cell might be bugged.

Jimmy shook his head before moving in a little closer, and now his face was only a few inches from Cindy's. She shivered a little, possibly because she was cold, knowing that wasn't actually the reason.

"I'm really not sure...I think I'll just have to pretend to help him, and you'll have to pretend to be mad about it... and with access to science again, I'll invent a way to get us out. Don't worry, I won't leave without you...trust me."

"I'm not worried."

Had Cindy just said that? Jimmy smiled at her words and they sat for a moment in silence, "What have you been doing in here all day?" Jimmy was speaking in a normal voice again.

"Trying to escape," she answered, gesturing to the force field.

He got up to examine it, and stood for a minute before coming to sit back down next to Cindy, "There's an electrical charge running through it... You must have gotten shocked a few times," He laughed a little, but hoped his eyes also showed a little of the concern he was feeling.

"You think? I hadn't noticed." she said sarcastically, sounding like her true self for the first time all night.

Her body slumped with fatigue and her long golden hair was getting in her face. Subconsciously, he reached over and brushed it away. She smiled, surprised, and Jimmy withdrew his arm and knotted his hands in his lap.

Embarrassed as he was, he just kept staring. She looked more beautiful than he had ever seen her. Maybe it was that her hair was down around her shoulders, and he'd never seen it that way, or the blue light from the force field making her look... different-but in a very good way. It was "The Mars Effect" multiplied tenfold.

"You need to sleep."

She gave him a very harsh look at the suggestion that she comply with a suggestion that he had made, but it was easy to tell that she was extremely tired, so she found a more comfortable position on the ground, leaning up against the rock where he sat, on the opposite side.

"Better?" Jimmy asked quietly.

"A little." she mumbled sleepily, and her breathing grew deeper and Jimmy knew she was sound asleep.

He, on the other hand, didn't want to fall asleep. He half-feared she would be gone again when he awoke, like the previous morning. While he was awake, he thought of more steps to his plan to get them out of there. It was like a double blind experiment... there were too many variables he didn't know, therefore couldn't consider... He took her pink hair elastic out of his pocket and fiddled with it. He'd have to remember to give it to her when she woke up.

The force field was obviously solid, and there was no way out, or Cindy obviously would have escaped by then. Jimmy's null generator was in his hypercube, and they could have been out of there in a moment if he'd had it with him. Jimmy supposed it was in Calamitous' hands now.

What he'd told Cindy earlier was their only option: The only way he could get them both out of this mess would be to accept Calamitous' offer and maybe he could get them out once he had access to scientific materials again. If Jimmy could only get Calamitous to give him back his hypercube, everything would be perfect. He had done it once before, by finishing one of Calamitous' inventions and using it to make a hole in the steel walls through which to escape.

But he had a feeling that this time, it would be harder to escape. It was the same old situation, but on a much larger scale. It seemed Calamitous now had henchmen working for him, a variable that had really never been thrown into the mix before.

Jimmy slid down on the other side of the rock, made some scientific calculations in his head to try to plan for their escape, and eventually he too drifted into an uneasy sleep.

--------------------------------

**too lazy, too tired to write a long a/n. once again, i apologize for any pronoun misusage. i'm tired and... all that lameness. review!**

**much love guys,**

**kle**


	6. OneWay Mirrors and Cheap Tricks

**Oh. My. God, you guys. I'm soo sorry about the wait. My laptop died again**, **so I had to order a new charger from Dell and it took like 3 weeks to get here… **

**Plus, school started and with that plus soccer I'm hella busy. I'm taking advantage of the three-day weekend to give you guys 2 new chapers… Maybe 3. Who knows? Anyways, here's one. The longest chapter yet, so w00t.**

**­**

Cindy woke up disoriented and dizzy with hunger. She hadn't eaten in at least a day, she remembered.

What had happened the night before? She had seen a side of Jimmy she had never really seen before. And she had been acting differently; she was sure of it.

It had been really strange, but definitely not an unwelcome change. She started pacing around in front of her rock, quietly, so she wouldn't wake Jimmy. Her brain was a swirl of indiscernible emotions. How would things change now? Since the beginning of the trip, things had just been weird between them. She supposed it had been happening for a while now. Hadn't Jimmy pretty much admitted on Mars that he liked her? And he did it again in Timmy's world before the Friday the 13th dance.

And she knew she felt the same way. Then, why were things so hard?

And what day was it? She had lost all sense of time because of the constant darkness, and she looked around the rock for Jimmy's arm and his watch, and found that he was not there. She rubbed her temples and circled the rock.

Where was Jimmy? She spun around and saw that he was nowhere in the dome of blue light. It was then that she began to worry for her own sanity. Had he even been there? Was she just imagining him completely? She stuck her hands in the sweatshirt pocket to warm them up, and noted as she did this, "_Neutron's sweatshirt! He definitely was here!_ " So where was he now?

She had a split second to worry before the answer showed up in the form of none other than Professor Calamitous himself. She gave him her best death glare, usually only reserved for Jimmy himself.

"I suppose you're wondering of the whereabouts of Mr. Neutron." Calamitous said in his annoying little voice, "He has finally come to his senses and is now helping me in my conquest of the planet Earth."

"He's WHAT?" she stared in incredulity, remembering to act angry for Jimmy's plan to work.

"Oh yes, and now, you're going to help me as well."

She had just enough time to hear this and process it before the men in the black grabbed her and dragged her down the hall. She resisted a little, but who was she kidding? She wasn't going to escape, plus she would never leave without Jimmy, not in a million years.

She hadn't paid much attention to where they were going. She probably should have; it might have been useful information during their escape...

Calamitous turned around and pointed to a small room that the men were about to take her into.

"Any requests you'd like to... um... what's the word?"

"Don't hurt Jimmy," she said simply, for lack of anything better to say.

The two men turned into the small room that looked like a closet. The taller one looked down at her, and she gave him her best, most evil Cindy glare.

The other one grabbed some metal shackles and snapped them onto her arms and legs. She felt quick burst of pain emanating from each of her limbs and that's the last thing she remembered before everything went black... again.

**Jimmy's POV (I think this part will be easier in POVS)**

I grabbed a screwdriver off the table of tools Calamitous had set out for me.

After 4 hours of hard work, the "doomsday device" was nearing completion. For the first time I could remember, I had no plan. No brain blasts. Thoughts of Cindy were clouding my head. I had no idea of how to get out of this awful state of affairs. There were too many variables left unchecked. I didn't know where she was, I didn't know where I was, I didn't know what the outer defenses were like... I just... didn't know!

It was a feeling I wasn't used to, and I didn't enjoy.

With every wire I soldered, every circuit board I completed, I was helping Professor Calamitous take over the world. I was building a weapon. The thought sickened me. All I could do was go with my current semblance of a plan.

If I could only find a way to get Cindy and myself out, I could sabotage the machine, and then we would get away.

A thought came to me, and feeling just slightly more at ease, I began my construction on a small remote control that would cause the machine to self-destruct in case Cindy I did make it out of there. I put one green button on it so the remote would turn off all of the lights in the fortress. Since I would be expecting it, I could run away and find Cindy while pandemonium ensued. Then, I added a red button for the self-destruct, hoping we would be far away by the time I had to press it.

Finally thinking that I may have solved at least one of our problems, I set to finishing the device.

Calamitous walked in as I was turning the final screws, somewhat immersed in my own defeat. What if I couldn't find Cindy? My whole plan would fail and the earth would be destroyed.

"So, Jimmy..." I hated him so much, my hands were shaking, "Good work," he circled around the doomsday device, "I will deliver my threat to the United Nations before the hour is up, and then you and Miss Vortex will be ejected into deep space, and your other friends, once I find them too."

That sentence did two things for me. It told me that the Libby and the guys were still safe. That was good. Calamitous hadn't found them. It also told me that as soon as Calamitous no longer had a use for Cindy and me, he was going to get rid of us. I can't say I was surprised, but I can say I was angry. I thought for a moment, "What if the doomsday device doesn't work? You'll have gotten rid of me."

"I'll take my chances." The tiny old man shrugged, "Or maybe I'll test it on Retroville first. So tell me Jimmy: Will it work? Or will I have to test it on a small city in Texas first?"

I went pale, "It'll work."

"Good, because I wouldn't want you to lose any more people who are dear to you..." And with that, he pushed a button on a remote of his own, and the mirror behind me switched into a window, through which I saw Cindy, who was in shackles, "She really cares about you, you know. I asked for her requests, and she said, 'Don't hurt Jimmy.' So touching," he recounted mockingly.

"She said that? She called me Jimmy?" I don't know why that had such an effect on me, but it did. The glass turned back into a mirror, and I gave the doomsday device a final overlook.

"I need a special device for this," I said to Calamitous, "It's in my hypercube. You wouldn't happen to have that, would you?"

**Cindy's POV**

My eyes snapped open, and I found my hands wouldn't move.

I looked down, and saw, to my alarm, shackles with wires were attached to my wrists and ankles. I squinted down to them and decided they were probably designed to give me some kind of shock.

What was the escape plan? When were we going to get out of here? I had questions, and I needed them answered.

There was a slightly smoked window in front of me, and when I looked through it, to my shock, I could see Jimmy, and Professor Calamitous appeared to be supervising him, building what looked like a giant laser. Jimmy looked tired and it appeared that he couldn't see me. Maybe the glass was a one way mirror or something. I was almost angry at him for indirectly getting me involved with this. Of course, deep down, I knew none of this was his fault, but I would give Jimmy a piece of my mind next time I talked to him.

I watched Jimmy carefully; he appeared to be finished. Professor Calamitous now seemed to be threatening Jimmy, and to my surprise, he pointed in my direction, and the glass in front of me lost its smoky quality.

Jimmy spun around, and where I'm guessing there had been a mirror seconds earlier, there was a window, and through it, he saw me. My arms and legs were shacked with wires attached, and I'm guessing by his face he could tell by the wiring that these were bad news.

He worked for a while after the glass turned opaque, and I saw one of the henchmen bring him his hypercube.

**Jimmy's POV**

I could think of only one invention I had that would get her out of it, but it hadn't been finalized yet. It could hurt Cindy very badly, though, and I wasn't sure I could pull it off. But I had to try. Thousands of lives were at stake. Probably more. I reached in and pulled out the _Electrostatic Force Inducer_, prayed to the gods of science, grabbed my hypercube and placed my finger on the green button on my special remote.

Calamitous had switched the window to clear glass again, and I looked into her eyes and she looked back. I held her gaze for a few more seconds before I turned to look back at Professor Calamitous.

"It almost worked this time." I said, and he had a few seconds to wonder what I was talking about before I pressed the green button and everything went black.

I ran over to the one-way mirror and shielded the small glow of a laser from anyone who might see it, giving away my position in the dark. I could hear Calamitous and his men running around and bumping into stuff in their confusion, trying to find me. Using the laser lance, I cut through the mirror in front of her, and before I knew it, I fell on the floor in front of Cindy. I attempted in vain to remove the shackles while the shouts of confusion from Calamitous and his men became more organized.

"Nobody move!" Calamitous shouted, and all of his men stopped, "He'll make a noise while trying to escape and then we'll find him!"

What did they think I was, a mouse? Well, the mouse was going to give _them_ some bait. I felt around on the ground for something to throw... my hypercube? No. I felt some sort of wrench or tool on the ground, and hurled it through the hole in the glass into the opposite wall of the large laboratory. I heard them all run to the corner where I had thrown it, and held my breath when one of then yelled, "Out into the hall! Follow him!"

Satisfied, I turned back to Cindy, and I used some light from my hypercube to examine the wiring.

"Cindy," I whispered, "the only way I can get you out of there is to use my new invention. I'm pretty sure it will free you from the shackles, but I'll only do it if you want me to, because it could be really dangerous... you'll probably go unconscious… maybe for like-"

"-8 hours," She interrupted, "I know. I listened to your show and tell. Just do it. I um... I trust you."

"You listened? You trust me?" I looked at her in disbelief, but she couldn't see me in the dark.

"Yes, of course I trust you... just, don't be wrong! Now, get me out of here."

I hesitated. Now that my eyes had adjusted to the darkness I could make out the outline of her face and I reached out and squeezed her hand. She squeezed it back. At that moment, I realized I loved her more than ever.

There was a shout from outside and I knew I couldn't waste any more time.

I felt down onto the floor for the Electrostatic force inducer. I closed my eyes and pushed the appropriate button. Through my half-shut eyes I saw the bright light illuminate the shackles and then Cindy, and then it went away. I sensed Cindy starting to fall, and I caught her in my arms. She was unconscious, and I thought I could feel her breathing, but I wasn't sure. I tried in vain to wake her up, but it was just as I had feared. I threw her arms around my neck from the back, and carried her to the door and tried to kick it open. It was locked. No matter. I pulled out my laser lance again from my hypercube and cut a large square hole in the door.

The lights still hadn't been turned back on. My remote was doing exactly as it should have. All the power in the building had shut down. I checked my watch, which was working again because there was no more power to disrupt the signal. I needed to go down the hallway to my right, but as I turned to go, I saw the unmistakable beams of flashlights heading towards me from that direction, so I turned and went the other way as fast as I could with Cindy on my back.

I ran down hallway after hallway, making lightning-quick decisions in blind panic. I could feel Cindy's head on my shoulder, and though she was still unconscious, I could feel her chest rise and fall. Finally, I crashed through a door and was outside. It was fairly dark out, but much lighter than it was in the building, so I could see quite well. I checked the astrocar's position using my watch, and found it was nearly a mile away.

I could hear footsteps behind me, and I knew I didn't have much time. I let go of Cindy's legs and punched in an emergency message to the astrocar, "Sheen! Carl! Libby! Come to the fortress as fast as you can!"

**Libby's POV**

At the sound of Jimmy's worried voice, I snapped my head up off the control panel of the astrocar. It had been a long day. Carl and Sheen's ceaseless arguing had nearly driven me nuts, I had locked myself in the back end of the astrocar for an hour with my CDs while they argued about the existence of space llamas and Ultra lord, teenage Ultra Lord, baby Ultra Lord and the Brain-Melting-Space-Fiends of some stupid, made-up planet... (I think you could guess who was arguing for which). Not to mention I was worried sick about my best friend...

I caught the tail end of Jimmy's message, and Sheen and I tried to follow his instructions.

As we lifted off the planets' surface, I couldn't help but wish Jimmy had shared more information in his brief message. I hoped it meant Jimmy had found Cindy. Why hadn't he contacted us before now? I also hoped we weren't in danger, as Jimmy had sounded out of breath on the message. Were they in trouble? Was Cindy okay? Worry consumed me as Sheen steered towards our friends, and I searched the ground eagerly for signs of blonde hair or Jimmy's giant head. _Where are they?_ I wondered.

**Jimmy's POV**

_Where are they?_ I checked my watch. The astrocar could move at hundreds of miles per hour, and they had been one mile away. It should have taken them much less than the two minutes that had already passed to get to where I was, including the ignition sequence and startup of the astrocar.

Suddenly, the door behind me crashed open, and before I knew it, Cindy and I were surrounded by Calamitous and his henchmen, and the former looked vengeful and quite angry, but this was probably an understatement.

"So, Jimmy, you tried to escape, but all you ended up doing was wasting my time and knocking out your girlfriend." My eyes flashed at this comment, and I once again felt a pang of worry for the girl I was carrying on my back, "So now you are going to come back and finish your work in my plans for... for..."

"World domination?" one of the henchmen offered.

"That's the one!"

"No." I said simply.

"I don't think you understand, my dear boy." Calamitous glared, "You have no choice. The ball is in my court. You are completely under my control."

"That's what you think," I rummaged in my pockets and my hypercube for the remote control I had made. It was time to press the second button- the doomsday machine's self destruct.

"Looking for this?" Calamitous' smug voice ended my search, and fearfully, I looked up to see the remote in my foe's hands.

Behind the men, I saw the astrocar land silently. Libby and the guys couldn't have done better if they had tried. But I still had a problem; many problems, in fact.

So, first, I needed to make sure Calamitous' plans were ruined, and that meant destroying the laser. But how? Calamitous had the button I needed to push, and I was nearly out of options. As I always did in a situation like this, I shut my eyes and thought hard, "Think, think!"

**Libby's POV**

What was happening? Sheen and Carl and I watched closely as Jimmy faced off, surrounded by men in black suits and a short, stubby bald man I recognized as the evil Professor Calamitous.

Where was Cindy? I couldn't see anything! I muttered, "This is ridiculous," as I turned away to find binoculars. Goddard had binoscope mode, but Sheen had used up all of Goddard's main battery watching episodes of Ultra Lord saved on the dog's hard drive.

"What's happening?" Carl asked. Carl, even with glasses, had terrible vision, so the question was not unexpected.

"I don't know!" Sheen said, "Do you think those guys are ninjas? I hate ninjas,"

"No Sheen, they can't be ninjas. Ninjas have throwing stars and really cool theme songs." He started singing the ninja theme song, which was much like the spy theme song, but (even though no one else thinks this is possible) a million and twenty times worse.

While I hadn't yet found binoculars, I had found a number of heavy things, and I selected one at random and hurled it over my shoulder to make the singing stop.

"Ow! My scapula!" Carl whined, and I considered for a moment looking for a gun to end my misery, (**A/N. She was kidding, Libby's not suicidal, and neither am I)** when I found a mini telescope in one of the cargo areas.

I bolted over to the doorway to look back through the window, and finally spotted Cindy. She was on Jimmy's back, with her arms around his neck, and she seemed to be asleep or passed out. I felt fear grip me as I watched to see what Jimmy was doing.

I recognized immediately that he was having a brain blast... I saw him mouth the words, "think, think!" and I thought everything might be okay. So, according to Jimmy's instructions, I stayed aboard the astrocar and watched the events unfold in front of me.

**Next one will be up tomorrow? We're almost done. Anyways, let's get 7 reviews and it will be up tomorrow. I promise.**


	7. A Genius' Thoughts REPOSTED

**You guys outdid yourselves. I had my goal for 7 votes in… hmmm like 3 hours after I made the request? Thanks so much, guys. **

**This chapter of the story starts out with Jimmy in mid brain-blast.**

Jimmy needed to make Calamitous drop the remote but all he could think about was Cindy, and suddenly, her pink hair elastic flashed across his brain. He remembered Friday, in class, Butch had shot him in the forehead with a rubber band and he had dropped the invention the he was holding.

"Brain blast!"

He jammed his hand into his pocket and pulled out Cindy's pink hair tie. Before anyone could stop him or even see what he was doing, he shot it at Professor Calamitous.

Everything seemed to be moving in slow motion. He saw the look of surprise register on the face of Professor Finbarr Calamitous, who flung up his hands to protect his face, losing his grip on the invention. Jimmy set Cindy down quickly and sprung on to the ground to catch the remote when it fell. The elastic struck Calamitous right above the eye and the action dropped the remote control device and the elastic right into his outstretched hands.

Jimmy sprung up agilely and smiled. He felt sure for the first time in days that things would be okay.

"Now," he said quietly, threateningly, and with as much menace as he could muster in his exhausted state, waving the remote around as if it were a loaded gun, "the ball is in my court. I'm leaving now..." Calamitous' men stood their ground, "...unless you want me to blow up your space laser, and your entire base."

The men stood aside on Calamitous' order and Jimmy carried Cindy in his arms towards the astrocar, and then he turned around, "But just to warn you, I'm blowing it up anyway." He pushed the button, and it flashed bright red. He threw it back to Calamitous, and it hit him in the head and knocked him over.

"Get him!" he shouted from the ground, but Jimmy was nearly to the astrocar now, and as he approached it, the side door popped open and he launched himself and Cindy inside.

"Hurry, you guys! The base is gonna blow!" he shouted from the floor.

"Go! Go!" Libby shouted to the guys.

Carl hit the button to shut the door, and they were soon airborne and out of danger, but not before Jimmy heard a shout from his archenemy, "This isn't over, Jimmy Neutron, I'll get you!"

"Sure you will," Jimmy muttered. Then he stood up and surveyed the inside of the astrocar. It was pretty much a mess, but he was too tired to care. Carl was sitting in the captain's chair, looking thoroughly confused, and just pressing random buttons. Sheen was staring out at the scene of confusion they had just left behind. Libby was bent over Cindy, apparently quite concerned. She gave Jimmy a questioning stare, and he mumbled an incoherent and insufficient explanation before kneeling down on Cindy's right side.

"Someone should probably steer the ship." Libby suggested as he held Cindy's wrist to check her pulse and monitored her other vital signs with his watch.

Without looking up, Jimmy said, "You can put it on autopilot. I'm not moving. Just press the yellow button on the dashboard twice."

When Libby returned, she brought with her a pillow and one of the Neutron blankets. They put the pillow under Cindy's head and covered her with the blanket. Libby eyed the Neutron sweatshirt Cindy was wearing with interest but made no comment. "_Halleluiah_," Jimmy thought.

"So what really happened to her?"

"She got a severe electrical shock."

"And _who_ gave her the severe electrical shock?"

"Uh... that would be me," Jimmy put his hands up to pacify her and possibly to shield myself, "but it was the only way we could escape. Otherwise there's no way I would have done it! She was in iron shackles!"

"How did _frying _her help? Why didn't you just cut through them with your little laser thingy?" Libby gave him a fierce glare that made him miss Cindy even more. It was a very Cindyish look.

"They were programmed to give her their own massive electrical shock if I tried."

"So you just decided to do it for them?"

He struggled to find a response to this. In the back of his mind, he knew what he had done was right, but Libby was making him doubt his actions more and more with every passing minute.

"When will she wake up?"

"I... I don't know."

"She is going to be fine, isn't she?"

"I don't know!" he snapped. Couldn't she see that this was killing him? On second thought, he hoped not... He hoped no one could see how much this was tearing him up inside... seeing her like this, and knowing he did it...

"Who kidnapped Cindy anyway?" Sheen asked from the back of the craft, where he was still eagerly watching to witness the explosion of the base. And then Jimmy heard a, "WHOA! Cooool!" (Jimmy guessed that was where the base exploded.)

"Calamitous." Jimmy mumbled, and Carl and Sheen gasped. Libby wasn't surprised, as she'd caught a glimpse of him back down on the surface.

"What was his plan this time, Jimmy?" Carl shuddered and hugged his stuffed llama.

Jimmy answered all of their questions wearily, his eyes never leaving Cindy's face.

"How long until we get back to Retroville?" Libby finally asked tentatively.

"About 10 hours. It's about 2 AM right now, so we'll be back around noon. Why?"

"Oh, because, I have, um, plans at 8 tonight, so I was just wondering," She looked almost uncomfortable, and he knew why. She was talking about Cindy's party, to which Jimmy was not invited. He had completely forgotten about it. It seemed impossible that with all he had just gone through, life on Earth and life for other people was still going on, "That is, if the birthday girl doesn't _die._" She finished, seeming to find anger as a substitute for her discomfort.

He just let this blow hit him like all the others. Nothing she could say would make him feel any worse. The only person who could do that was lying on the ground, oblivious to all happening around her.

This brought his thoughts back to said girl. To say he was extremely worried was the biggest understatement anyone could make. Had using his new invention on her been stupid? He may have been able to find another way to get her out of there. But there had been no time!

His head hurt again. He hadn't eaten in almost 2 days, and he had barely slept the previous night. Plus, it was 2 in the morning. He hadn't even been sure what day it was until Libby had mentioned the party being later the same day.

Soon, Carl was asleep at the wheel, and Sheen had fallen asleep on his vibrating chair. Libby got up a few minutes later and shut off the chair, and almost immediately fell asleep on the floor a few feet away from Cindy.

Jimmy resented them a little. How could they sleep? What had they been doing while he and Cindy were imprisoned?

So, with his muscles limp and his eyes half shut with fatigue, he refused to sleep until he was sure Cindy was fine. This was all his fault. He felt terrible.

No, it was worse than terrible... It was an emotion not yet named by the guys who make up words. With every minute her condition didn't improve, he became more and more disquieted.

A strand of hair had fallen across her face, and he brushed it back.

He noted as he did this that her eyes were moving rapidly under her closed eyelids. He was dreaming, she realized.

That gave him some hope. It basically told him she was only unconscious, as she still had brainwave activity.Jimmy shut his eyes briefly. If only he had his Dream Injector 5000. He could go into her head and reassure her. He wasn't sure what good it would do, though. He still wished he knew what she was thinking about.

It was amazing, he thought. He missed her so much, and yet, there she was, right next to him. He longed to look into her vivid green eyes, no matter what kind of look they were giving back.

He tucked the blanket tighter around her, and grabbed her right hand in both of his. He made sure everyone else was asleep and leaned over and silently kissed her forehead. He thought he felt her squeeze his hand when he did this, but it was almost definitely just his imagination.

As the autopilot navigated them past the Van Patten radiation belt, he remembered back when they had gotten superpowers. After a while, his friends' powers had worn off, but he had still been strong, and about to crush Cindy with a rock, and yet she had calmed him down. What she had said still rang in his mind as clear as when she had said it, "_You're a great guy. You're smart and talented... you don't deserve the way I treat you. I only do it so you won't recognize my real feelings. Truth is, well, I secretly sort of luh...luh..."_

But what had she meant to say? She gone unconscious, he recalled. Just like she was now. But even though she hadn't said she liked him, or even loved him, she had admitted that she acted the way she did towards him so he wouldn't see her true feelings, which meant she had some...

He smiled. She was mumbling, and he listened carefully, he thought he heard his name once.

And so, as the astrocar took them closer to Retroville and their homes and families, Jimmy stayed wide awake, holding on desperately to the girl he loved more than anything, and at that moment, he would have given almost anything to have her know how he felt. He resolved right then to tell her everything the second she woke up.

Though she had lost all sense of time, it was right before she awoke that she was in a battle with her own subconscious. She found herself reliving every moment she had with Jimmy. It was all starting to make some sense to her now.

She was meant to be with him. But every time they got close, someone or something pushed them apart. Usually it was Cindy denying her own feelings, but sometimes it was Jimmy, just being a jerk.

_He really is a jerk, _she thought_, I mean, I love him, and I nearly told him so countless times. So I am **through** trying to make him come to me. From now on, it's his move. He gets zero compassion from me, and let's see how he likes it._ And in this state of righteous anger, she gave a great jolt and her eyes fluttered open, to see for the first time in hours.

Jimmy, who had been noticing her ever-increasing movement for minutes, gave a small shout, waking Libby. Before she knew what was happening, he hugged her tightly, but then quickly released her, looking into her eyes intently before quickly looking back over to Libby, slightly embarrassed.

_There he is_, Cindy decided, _doing it again._ _Unless... he really, truly has no feelings for me. That must be it._

"You're okay!" Jimmy sounded more relieved than he would have thought possible, "I was so wor-"

"I'm obviously fine, Nerd-tron, now if you would please let go of my hand... You're crushing it."

Jimmy, quite shocked, let go, and Cindy got up and walked over to Libby, gave her a quick hug, and then started answering her friend's eager questions.

Jimmy sat there on the floor. He could not have been more shocked if she had slapped him across the face.

**Poor Jimmy. 8 is the magic number this time. 8 reviews and you get chapter 8. Wow. That's a bag of awesome for ya. **


	8. Sweet Reconciliation REPOST

**thanks to the few people who reviewed. after being really depressed for a few days that no one's been reviewing I just decided to suck it up and add a chapter even though I'm a few short of how many I wanted. It's really not that important. I'm getting more hits with each chapter. Anyways here's the next one, just for the sake of posting.**

**Chapter 8- Sweet Reconciliation**

Jimmy could not have been more stung if she had slapped him across the face. He blinked a few times, then got up, and walked over to the controls of the astrocar.

He grabbed onto the joystick that served as the steering mechanism, just to stop his hands from shaking. Forget the slap in the face, he felt like the emotional equivalent of being hit by a bus, and then backed over by that same bus, and then run over again.

He'd had some medical tests he wanted to perform on her to make sure she was okay... but he couldn't even look at her now.

**Cindy's POV**

"What did you _just do!"_

I was completely shocked by Libby's reaction, "What do you mean?"

"Girl, you are so clueless! Did you not just see the hurt on Jimmy's face when you just walked away from him like that? Don't tell me I can read him better than you. That is just plain sad."

Libby looked to make sure Jimmy wasn't listening, and went on, "You've been unconscious for, like, a really long time, and before that you were missing for like a day. I have never seen anyone more worried about another human being in my entire life than Jimmy was about you."

I opened my mouth to protest but Libby shook her head and continued, "Now, you've been out cold for about 9 hours. I think. I don't know. I was sleeping. But you know who wasn't sleeping? Jimmy. He sat beside you and held on to your hand, waiting for you to wake up. He didn't eat, he didn't move, he didn't do anything, until he knew you would be fine. So maybe you don't know he cares that much about you, so let me be the first to inform you: He does. Maybe you don't care that he cares that much about you, and in that case, let me say: That is cold, girl. You are like the ice woman."

I just sat there staring into empty space, absorbing my friend's words. I was feeling more and more distressed with each passing sentence. The change in Libby alarmed me. She had never spoken outright about my supposed feelings for Jimmy, only alluded to them with snide comments and observations.

But Libby wasn't finished quite yet, "How did you guys escape anyways? Calamitous looked like he had a bunch of henchmen."

I could barely speak, "Uh, Jimmy did it all, I guess. I couldn't really do anything. But there was like 20 guys chasing us, well chasing him. And he must have carried me, while they chased him..." I mused.

Libby gave me a look that told me I was truly a terrible person, but I didn't need to be told. I **felt** like a truly terrible person.

Then Libby added, just for good measure, "And nice sweatshirt, by the way."

I looked down at the Neutron symbol. "Oh my god. What did I do? What _do_ I do?"

"Well, that's up to you. But if it was me, I would let Jimmy know how you feel. Finally. Or at least thank him, or hug him or somethin'."

**(A/N: Is Libby OOC? I didn't think so a few months ago when I wrote this but now I'm not sure. Either way, Cindy deserves it, I guess)**

By now, we were almost home, as Jimmy announced to no one in particular that we would be entering Earth's atmosphere in about two minutes.

He caught my eye, but immediately turned back around. I flinched at the hurt I saw on his face.

With one last reassuring glance from Libby, I got up and slowly walked over to the front of the astrocar.

"Um, Jimmy."

I had his attention now, whether he wanted to give it to me or not. Whenever I called him by his actual first name, he knew it had to be serious.

He got turned a little in his chair and looked me straight in the eyes, as if trying to identify the emotion he saw there.

Silently, I smiled, and he half-smiled back. My heart ached with the hurt I still saw reflected in his eyes.

"Libby told me what you did. And, um, I just wanted to say thanks. For everything..."

He searched my blushing face for what I was about to do, when I quickly leaned over and kissed him on the cheek.

"Oh, uh, you're welcome." Jimmy went red in the face, but he was trying as hard as he could not to smile, and failing miserably, "And I'm glad you're okay... um, how do you feel?"

"Oh... I'm great," I grinned shyly and sat back down in the co-pilot's chair.

I looked back to Libby, who also smiled from her seat in the back of the astrocar, "_About time,"_ she mouthed to me. Beside her, she obviously sensed Sheen, who was now awake, was about to make a sarcastic and/or stupid comment. She elbowed him in the ribs as he opened his mouth, and all he got out was, "Ow, Libs."

A few minutes later, the astrocar touched down behind Jimmy's clubhouse. Jimmy was back piloting the ship, and I was still in the chair next to his, absentmindedly twirling my hair. The others got up and left quietly on Libby's forceful instruction.

We pretended not to notice.

"So how exactly _did_ we... well, mostly you, escape from Calamitous?" I looked into his tired but brave eyes. To my great surprise, he suddenly smiled broadly and out of his pocket, he produced my favorite pink hair elastic.

I subconsciously ran my hand through my hair, which I had forgotten was down, "How... what?"

"I used it to shoot professor Calamitous in the eye. He dropped the device I needed to blow up the space laser that I built, used it to bargain our way out of there... then I kinda blew it up anyway."

He spoke like he was showing off a particularly ambitious school project. I couldn't help but admire him as he spoke.

He handed me the hair elastic, pausing a bit during the transaction.

I couldn't help but laugh at the look he was giving me. "What?" I giggled flirtatiously. _I'm such an idiot, _I thought.

"Oh, your hair, when it's down...it looks-"

"I know, terrible," I started to put my hair back up, but Jimmy grabbed my arm before I could.

"No, really good," He said simply, (**A/N: Remember these exact lines from earlier? You should. Chapter 1)** "I love it."

And with that, he jumped out of the astrocar and into the noontime sun, blushing furiously.

"Neutron, wait!" I steeled myself for what I was about to do.

He turned around, and I jumped out of the astrocar too, "My party tonight: Umm, you're coming right?"

"I didn't think you really wanted me there."

"Well you were wrong." I felt the need to bring the conversation into more familiar territory, so, in mock puzzlement, I added slyly, leaning against the side of the spacecraft, "Now, I forget, Jimmy: do you _like_ to be wrong?"

He saw what I was doing and smiled, "I'll try to stop by." And without another word, he walked up the steps and into his house. I gave a long, tired sigh and turned around to walk across the street, where I was sure I would find Libby waiting to help me decorate.

"So? What happened?" Libby demanded of me upon my entering the room.

"When?" I pretended to be puzzled.

"Girl, no. Don't even try that on me. I know you, remember? Did you at least invite him to your party?"

"Who? Oh yeah," I attempted to act aloof, and failed.

Libby shook her head and she spotted a picture frame on my desk she definitely hadn't seen before. Before I could stop her, she picked it up and glanced at the picture inside. It was a picture of Jimmy and me, after we had saved the town from the space bandits' plan to sell us all as living dolls. I had the top of the trophy, and Neutron had the bottom. It was a pretty funny picture; but my favorite part about it by far was the look Jimmy was giving me out of the corner of his eye. I had stared at it for hours trying to decipher the expression on his face as he was looking at me. It wasn't an angry look at all, or a look of exasperation. What was it?

"Why do you have this?" Libby asked accusingly, and she was examining "the face" as well. I took the picture and put it back on the desk, trying to act casual.

"Umm, it's documenting my accomplishment. See the trophy?"

"Or, it could be the only good picture you have of you and Jimmy, and you love it."

"Could be..." I said mysteriously, slightly ticked off that Libby had figured it out.

**Jimmy's POV**

At 8:10 that night, I rolled off my bed and onto the floor. I stared at my clock, not absorbing the information it told me for a minute or so. Cindy's party had already begun. I guess I would have to be "fashionably late" I shuffled slowly into my bathroom, showered, and then got dressed in my favorite red t-shirt **(A/N: he has like forty of them, I think)** and my blue bathing suit under my jeans.

I was still very tired, and I knew it was visible in my face. Looking out the window, I could see the lights burning bright in Cindy's backyard. My window was cracked open slightly, and I could hear the faint sounds of the occasional cannonball into Cindy's pool and the music of Graystar, a favorite band of Cindy and Libby. It was a warm night, early in June, and I decided on wearing a light jacket. I looked around for my Neutron sweatshirt before I remembered Cindy had it. Maybe if tonight went well, she would want to keep it.

I grabbed her present off my dresser. She was going to love it. I knew she would. I had spent countless hours creating it in my lab, and if this didn't show Cindy how much I cared, I didn't know what would. I could only hope she still had the piece that would make it complete.

**Ooh cryptic. Guess what the "piece" is that makes it complete and you win a spot in the eternal hall of fame for awesomeness and you get the next chapter (which I think is the last one) dedicated to you.**

**I'll update in a few days. The more reviews, the quicker the chapters come! Please make my day and review!**


	9. Somethin' Screwy Author's Note

Somethin screwy's happening with Half of my reviewers couldn't see chapter 7 "A Genius' Thoughts" You were right in your reviews when you said that you thought you were missing something. You deffffffinitely were. Something pretty huge. Actually like the whole reason I wanted to write the damn story.

In conclusion, if you did get to read the last 2 chapters (you should be able to tell by skimming) then IGNORE the reposts. If not, then by all means read on.


	10. Ohhhh Pretty Much the End

**W00t! You guys are amazing and I love you all. This chapter is dedicated to everyone who guessed the question at the end of last chapter correctly, specifically: jimlover54, countegor, Stay-Away, Masta-Of-Light, sk84nate, Latios-Dragonrider, Emerald-sama (you deserve it), and harryswifey. (If anyone guessed in between me writing this A/N to the time of upload I'm sorry. And if I just plain forgot anyone I'm probably sorry)**

**Ohhh man! I'm so happy right now. Ok ok ok ok so what now? Oh yeah. The chapter. Sweet. Last one and it's ridiculously long so grab the popcorn.**

**I really hate the ending of this story, but I hope you enjoy it.**

"C'mon girl! Join the party!" Libby danced her way over to Cindy, who was standing on the side of the pool, staring into space. She had something in her hand and she was rolling it over and over nervously, but Libby couldn't quite see what it was, and when she tried to get a closer look, Cindy thrust it back in her pocket innocently.

"Is he here yet?" she asked, apparently not caring how desperate it made her seem.

Libby rolled her eyes and shrugged. "I'm loving your hair down. What's with the change, girl?"

"Oh," Cindy gave a small giggle, "I've heard some people like it..."

"You mean Jimmy? Speaking of Big-brain, have you told him you love him yet?"

Cindy was on the defensive immediately, "Love him? Where did you- no, I, look, Libby- oh! He's here!" Cindy didn't move, she just sighed contentedly and watched Jimmy walk into the party with a small wrapped box.

He looked better than she remembered. He had somehow completely changed in her eyes, yet he was dressed as he always was, and she could tell he was still tired from their little space adventure. She couldn't really blame him. According to Libby, the entire time she was out cold, he was next to her. He probably hadn't had a good sleep in 3 days.

Finally, after about 20 seconds, Cindy couldn't master the urge to talk to him anymore, so she sauntered over to him as slowly as she could manage in her current state of exhilaration.

The night was building up to something; she could tell. She just wasn't sure what.

His face instantly lit up at the sight of her. Or was she imagining it? She hoped not.

Jimmy set his gift at the base of the giant pile of presents as Cindy approached him. Her bangs were parted to the side, per usual, with the small curl at the end, but the rest of her hair was draped down to her shoulders, and Jimmy noted it had a slight wave to it. It moved slightly in the breeze as she walked toward him, and he caught himself staring at her again. He searched for something to say.

"Happy birthday, Cindy. Cool party." Jimmy noticed it still felt weird to pay Cindy a compliment; he was so used to putting her down all the time.

"Thanks," Cindy looked around her backyard, "and it isn't officially my birthday for... three more hours. I talked my parents into letting everyone stay until midnight, so they'll actually be here the start of my birthday."

"That's great! So I'll be able to give you your present at exactly midnight, maybe," Jimmy smiled nervously. That would be beyond perfect.

Libby had a DJ booth set up on one side of the pool and all the party guests were either dancing around the edges or swimming, or in Carl's case, standing scared at the edge of the pool wearing ugly swimming trunks, a nose plug, and every sort of flotation device known to man, (but yet he was still completely dry, and it looked as if he would remain this way for some time.)

There was also a large projection screen, where Cindy said there would be a horror movie playing later.

"You wanna..." Jimmy gestured to the impromptu dance floor.

"Dance?" Cindy beamed, "Sure."

Libby looked up from her spinning discs and watched Cindy and Jimmy dancing to one of her favorite classic songs from Mix Master P. She soon noticed she wasn't the only one watching this new development with interest. She smiled to herself and made a mental note to put a slow song on next.

"So you brought me a present?" Cindy asked over the music.

"I guess you could say that,"

"What is it?"

Jimmy just smiled, "I'm not telling you, but I think you'll like it,"

When the slow song came on, they both froze. There was a small tense moment, but it was broken when Jimmy bravely held out his hand as an invitation, and she accepted it, of course. (**A/N: I think I did** **this in Hands Down too. But I wrote _this_ one first so don't think I'm copying or anything.)**

If there had been people watching them during the fast dance, it was nothing compared to the amount of people watching them now. All other activity had stopped for the most part, and one kid was watching, frozen in a springboard position, balanced precariously on the edge of the diving board, but neither of the dancers noticed.

The song wound to a close and Jimmy spun Cindy around into him one final time, perfectly timed with the ending notes.

A faster song had started, and Cindy politely excused herself, explaining that she was neglecting her other guests, and observing her closely, Libby could tell all the time she was fighting the urge to just stay by his side all night.

Still slightly elated, Jimmy went to go see Carl, who was now poking his toe in the pool.

"Oh, hey Jim. I saw you dancing with Cindy." Carl's toe touched the water and he jumped back a foot, "You liiiiiike her, don't you?" he teased in a singsong voice.

Jimmy replied in the form of a mysterious smile, a head shake, and a small push, and there was a splash as Carl plunged into shallow end of the pool.

"Aaaaaaah, I'm drowning!" Carl screamed, "Tell Jimmy's mom I love-"

"Shhhhhhh," came the reply from the crowd; the movie was starting. **(A/N: Time moves quickly at this party. Don't want you to get bored.) **Jimmy sat down in one of the many chairs around the pool to watch. He tensed as he was joined by none other than Betty Quinlan.

"Hi, Jimmy." She smiled and tossed her sleek black hair.

"_What is she doing?"_ Cindy was staring daggers at Betty,"_She said she'd lay off_." She felt the jealousy start to rise up inside her. She set down her punch and walked across the yard to sit in the seat on Jimmy's other side.

He turned his attention to her and smiled, and Cindy saw Betty's eyes flash with... ...was it jealousy? ...Anger? Cindy wasn't quite sure. Either way, it made her happy. When Jimmy looked away, she gave Betty a small glare that said, "_You said I could have him, remember?" _and Betty got up and left, leaving her there with Jimmy.

The horror movie lived up to its name. Carl even had to leave, as he had an embarrassing accident in his bathing suit.

"If only I had stayed in the pool!" he cried as he ran home, leaving them all to ponder that horrifying thought.

The movie scared Cindy. She would readily admit it. Actually, it didn't really scare her as much as it startled her. Each time the music would crescendo and something would jump out of the dark, she jumped on the pool chair she was sharing with Jimmy and her heart started to beat abnormally fast. - Normal horror movie stuff. She didn't like being so caught off guard.

Jimmy was amazing though, and by the 3rd sequence, he had figured out, using some crazy math thing, when startling things were about to happen, so when one was coming up, he would grab her hand to let her know.

Cindy admired him for being so... there were no words. Every time he touched her hand to warn her, she felt an excited shiver run up her spine.

Needless to say, Jimmy was pretty proud of himself. This was the perfect way to interact with Cindy during the film, to touch her hand with a purpose in mind to explain it._ "Sure, I can stop meteors from hitting the Earth, and save the town from crazy psycho tanks, but I can't move my hand 2 inches to the left and grab Cindy's hand." _

After the movie, Cindy gave his hand a quick squeeze in thanks as she got up to take control of her party again.

The party people decided it was time to play games, and soon there was a diving contest, Marco Polo, a volleyball match, and a game of spin-the-bottle, all going on in the backyard.

Betty waved to Jimmy from the latter, and he suddenly had a small urge to join her in spin-the-bottle, but with a sidelong glance to Cindy, he resolved instead to play Marco Polo.

Libby couldn't help but laugh as she watched Jimmy and Cindy shamelessly flirting in the pool. Here they were, the two most competitive people she knew, losing on purpose and acting like fools.

She watched Jimmy, hands out, feeling around in the water, grab Cindy around the shoulders and Cindy giggle flirtatiously. Libby shook her head exasperatedly. They were such idiots. "_Idiots in **love**_," Libby thought, rolling her eyes as Jimmy snuck out of the water, prompting Cindy to yell, "fish out of water," and give chase up on dry land, which ended with her tackling Jimmy on the grass.

She rolled off of him, and they both laughed until their sides hurt, and the Marco Polo game resumed without them. They were kind of ruining it for everyone else anyway, so no one minded much.

Cindy sighed as she stared up at the starry sky, "I'm sorta glad you came,"

"I'm sorta glad to be here." He smiled, Cindy shut her eyes, savoring the moment and feeling once again the sense that something big was to happen before the night ended.

"So what _did_ you get me for a present?" she asked again. The burning curiosity was eating a hole in her.

"I'm still not telling you."

"Give me a hint."

Jimmy seemed to search his mind for a good clue, because it took him a moment to answer, "It's metaphorical,"

She lay there in silence, thinking about what it could possibly be.

By now, the air had cooled off a little, and she went to go put on Jimmy's sweatshirt, maybe to give it back, because he had said he might have had to leave soon.

On her way back from retrieving the sweatshirt, she walked by the present pile.

She looked for the present Jimmy had brought her, but she couldn't find it anywhere. She really wanted to know what it was. He looked over to the pool, where she saw Jimmy still sitting in the pool chair, staring at the water.

Everyone else appeared to be busy playing games. Where was Libby? She decided that she would worry about her later.

Cindy looked back to Jimmy, and she noticed he had her present in his hand. She walked over and sat facing him in the chair, with her legs crossed.

"Taking it back?" she joked.

"Oh, um, I wanted to give it to you before I left." Jimmy handed her the gift and rotated so he was sitting Indian style too, (**A/N: Not politically correct, but whatevs)** mirroring her in the chair.

She took it carefully and looked into his eyes for a brief second before starting to unwrap it. The look she saw in them she couldn't quite comprehend. It looked like a combination of apprehension, nervousness, and another emotion she had seen in them before, but was impossible to identify.

She scooted a little closer to him; close enough that their knees were touching. Jimmy pretended not to notice the action, but the truth was that he did and it made him even more nervous.

A small box slid out of the paper and onto her lap. She took a deep breath and opened up the box. Her heart, which had been beating at a frighteningly fast rate a moment ago, now seemed to stop beating.

And at that moment, she knew. He loved her too. He had to.

She could remember all the times she had caught herself staring at him as he was thinking, while thinking herself how much she liked him. All the little moments they'd had in the past... nothing anyone had ever done for her was sweeter than this. It was comparable to the 137 oysters but somehow on a different level. Everything she had dreamed about was coming true in this moment.

Jimmy noticed that her hands were shaking as she took the necklace out of the small box.

There, on a white gold chain, hung a flower. She immediately recognized it as the same type she'd had with her, behind her ear when they were stranded on the island. In fact... it looked like the same flower, but smaller- the perfect size to be on the necklace. Cindy tapped it lightly; it was rigid, like glass or diamond.

Jimmy watched her admiring his work. He flashed back to a few months previously, when they were back on the island. Their friends had just arrived, and Jimmy had sent them off on errands to get him the ingredients for fuel so they could return home. He had sent them off so he could spend a few more minutes with Cindy before they had to leave. He had turned around to see her walk dejectedly off the beach. He saw the flower fall from her hands, and he could tell that inside, she was feeling the same way he was: Glad to be rescued, but crushed... because things were just starting to get good.

He had gone and picked up the flower, taken it back to his lab, and shrunken it slightly with his shrink ray and preserved it to make it unbreakable, waiting for the perfect time to give it to her.

She ran her hands over the tiny flower, still completely speechless, and noticed that in the middle, there were three prongs, looking as if they were designed to hold something small and spherical.

With a jolt, she realized what this must be. She glanced at Jimmy, who was now eyeing her with what was unmistakably extreme anxiety.

The intelligent look that always inhabited his cerulean eyes had vacated them for the moment, showing what was unmistakably pure, unadulterated fear.

"_Does she still have it? Did she care enough to keep it?"_ Jimmy had been repeating this in his head over and over for the last minute, but now, his mind and body froze as he watched for what she would do next.

Cindy's hands were trembling as she reached into the pocket of her capri pants.

Slowly, she pulled out the pearl that he had given her on their last night on the island and he felt himself relax for the first time in ages. She had kept the pearl... That was all that mattered to him. She was even carrying it around with her. She shakily held it up to the small silvery prongs, which glowed slightly for a second, conformed to the shape of the pearl, and then faded, attaching it to the flower.

Cindy held it up silently, and the blue light from the pool reflected on the shining petals of the flower and its pearl.

He carefully took it out of her hands and placed it around her neck, fastening it in the back.

She looked beautiful. Seeing her with the necklace on made the hours he had worked on it more than worthwhile. He realized he still had his arms around her neck and he took them away and knotted them nervously in his lap, all the time watching her face warily. It was her move now. As Calamitous would say, "the ball was in her court."

Cindy soundlessly examined the necklace that now hung around her neck. The two pieces were in perfect proportion to each other, and the necklace itself was just the right size.

She decided right then that it was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen. It wasn't just the necklace itself, but what it represented that meant so much to her. The flower was the perfect representation of all the time on the island, and the pearl was her most treasured possession. She could still remember the moment he'd given it to her; it was one of her favorite memories.

She threw her arms around his neck quickly and hugged him.

"Thank you so much!" Cindy said quietly, before letting go.

Jimmy beamed and she saw him flush, "_So cute_," she thought.

Cindy looked back down at the necklace. _"It's metaphorical,"_ Jimmy had said. It certainly was. The fact that he had made the flower, cared enough to do so, and the fact that she had kept the pearl, symbolized the… feelings… that they felt for each other, but not in words.

She decided that maybe... this was the time for those words.

Lately she had noticed how much influence the boy genius had on her everyday life. He was always next to her in class, coming up with correct answers at the speed of light, showing his perpetual intelligence that always filled her with a mixture of infuriation and infatuation. Right now, however, it was all infatuation.

He was always there, wherever she looked, even when she was asleep, he was often in her dreams. He... he had no equal. He was the only one good enough for her, the only one she would ever love, as far as she was concerned.

These were all the things she needed to say... but never would.

With one more look down to the necklace, she looked into Jimmy's eyes; they showed his uneasiness, but there was some hope in them as well.

"Do you like it?" he asked tentatively, though he hoped he already knew the answer.

"I love it." she replied weakly, laughing inwardly at the thought that he even had to ask the question. Her response was the understatement of the century, she decided. She closed her eyes briefly and made up her mind for what she was going to say.

Jimmy watched her quietly for a moment, aware of the mental battle she was fighting with herself, having fought it himself countless times.

Cindy chose her words carefully, picking a knot in the fence and fixing her eyes upon it determinedly, "It's so hard to hate you... when you're like this."

Jimmy laughed and responded after a moment, "Is that such a bad thing? Do we always have to hate each other?" After he said it, he felt a sense of foreboding. Something big was about to happen. He could sense it; it was palpable in the air. **(A.N. Too much foreshadowing? I think so too.)**

"I guess..." Cindy started, "I don't really hate you, anyways..."

"Yeah," Jimmy rubbed the back of his neck, a nervous habit of his, "I... don't really hate you either."

Cindy nodded sadly, "Yeah, I kinda figured," she fingered her new necklace nervously as she spoke.

"If we don't hate each other... how do we feel?" He said aloud.

The urge to tell Cindy the truth about everything he had ever felt about her was overpowering him, and he couldn't fight it much longer. And he had no idea why.

"How do we feel?" she repeated slowly, delaying her answer and looking up, scared, into his eyes. It was uncharted territory for them.

He could feel his heart beating in his throat. He met her gaze and saw her face and its frightened look. He could tell she was on the verge of revealing some forbidden information.

Her eyes were pleading with him not to make her answer, so he started talking before he could stop himself, "You amaze me, you know. You're the only one who's ever even come close to competing with me. It drives me insane. You drive me insane," he stopped, trying to comprehend the words that had just come out of his mouth. He sounded much angrier than he intended. He bit his tongue and buried his face in his hands to prevent any more words from escaping his mouth, "I mean, one time you almost beat me on a test and I studied so hard for the next one I didn't even sleep the night before. But, as insane as you drive me...I live for the competition you give me. I live every day for...for...you. I guess. And...it scares me a little how much you...matter to me. Well, it scares me a lot."

Little did he know, Cindy was feeling the same way. Shaking her head to rid herself of the odd sensation, she turned to reply to him. In her normal state, she might have given him an angry retort, but psychologically, she thought the necklace had affected her somehow.

Despite all this, she kept her face expressionless. Every word he was saying rang true for her as well. She bit her lip again, and looked at Jimmy. His eyes were roaming around, as he reasoned the situation out to himself out loud. Cindy couldn't believe this was happening after all this time; maybe she would keep her mouth shut and he would just say everything for her...

"I mean...this is kind of like wasted potential." she heard him say, more to himself than to her, "because, what's keeping us apart? **If**," she cringed at the emphasis he put on the word 'if', "we have any feelings for each other, what is keeping us from... telling each other or acting on said feelings... whatever they may be?"

He paused as if waiting for her to answer, and when she didn't, he continued, "It's other people - their opinions. But...I can't help but think... maybe, it wouldn't matter to me, because..."

"because, we would be together..." she finally found her voice and finished for him.

Jimmy eyed her shyly and cautiously, as if gauging her expression. He smiled when he saw Cindy was as well, "Hypothetically, of course," he finished lamely. She rolled her eyes a bit at the fact that he was still going through the Scientific Process.

Cindy continued, "I could stand it, all the insults, all the people that made fun... because the thing that they would be making fun of would make me happy enough for all else of it to seem... obsolete. So that brings us back to where we just were. **If** _some_ feelings exist, we've got to say something or... or...this is all it'll ever be."

Jimmy nodded silently, scared out of his mind. This was it. He had to say it now, or she did. Someone had to make a move. They were face to face in the chair... and she knew: everything was at stake, hanging in the balance.

She finally looked up, into his eyes. She glanced down at the necklace around her neck. Its petals were the same deep blue as his eyes. When she looked at the petals and thought of how much his gift had meant to her, She felt loved. And when she looked into his eyes... she saw love. He loved her. She just had to get him to say it.

**Cindy's POV**

I guess you could compare our relationship to a chess game. We have pawns in our little game, like Betty Quinlan and Nick Dean; we use them to make the other jealous.

We endlessly attack each other, losing pieces left and right, never stopping to think about what we're doing.

Eventually, one of us will lose, and the loser will end up being the one who finally breaks the silence.

I'm great at chess. I can beat everyone I know... except for one person. And that one person was currently conveniently seated across from me in the very same pool chair in which I was sitting. But, as in chess, a single false move on his part can lead to a checkmate for me.

And that's exactly what I was pushing for. Someone had to put everything on the line.

And I had a plan.

The power I had over Jimmy I was about to be used to its fullest potential.

**Jimmy's POV**

We were at a deadlock. A stalemate. Two equally strong (or equally weak) forces pitted up against each other.

"But what about Betty?" I heard her say. I looked up, slightly relieved that it was going somewhere.

I shrugged, "What about her?"

She glared, and out of habit, I glared back. "And April..." she leaned into me.

"...showed more compassion in the three days I knew her than you did in three years."

"Like Timmy, who showed more that he cared in one day than you did in 10 years,"

I balled my fists in anger at the mention of Timmy Turner **(A/N: Pretend it's Pre-JTPH3)**, and then continued, practically shouting, "But what about Eustace? And hey, what about Nick?"

"What?" Nick's head turned in my direction; he had obviously heard me.

"Nothing." I waved him off and shook my head exasperatedly.

"Whatever, dude." He went back to the volleyball game.

Cindy called my attention back to her by starting to rise to leave. No! Everything was going wrong, this wasn't how it was supposed to end! I checked my watch... 3 minutes before midnight.

In spite of myself, I grabbed her hands to prevent her from leaving.

**Cindy's POV**

I looked down to his hands, and then into his eyes. He could have let go now and I still wouldn't be able to move, because now his eyes were keeping me rooted to the spot.

I sat back down, lightly, and Jimmy relaxed his grip on my hands a little.

In a deadly quiet whisper I leaned in, "Neutron," he let go of my hands immediately at the use of his surname, "Give me one reason why I shouldn't smack you and walk away right now."

**Jimmy's POV**

There she was. The old Cindy I knew. I had to give her the reason. But what could I say?

And then it hit me. There was only one thing to say.

The truth.

"You want a reason?" I muttered, just as quietly, half-nervous, half-angry at her for forcing me into this position.

She nodded and I closed my eyes for a moment, before raising my head and opening them to look straight into hers. I opened my mouth and in an instant I saw her eyes transform from the vindictive, cruel stare, to one of longing and ...compassion.

**Cindy's POV**

He took a deep breath and looked straight at me, "Well, look at us. We used to not be able to stand the sight of each other, now, whether you like it or not: it's gotten complicated. And so, here we are. We've hit some bumps in the road, but deep down, I always knew that you were the girl for me. Sure, there was you and Nick, and Timmy, and sometimes Eustace... but ... I don't think they cared about you. Eustace used you to get to me, Timmy just needed a date, and Nick... just didn't care. You don't deserve that. You deserve someone who realizes how amazing it would be to have you... so they'd appreciate every moment spent with you. And yeah, sure, was Betty, and April, but those girls never mattered to me as much as you matter to me. And I hope you would say the same about those guys. It was always you for me. I was always trying to impress you, outdo you, beat you. So we fight, but deep down inside, it's not hatred that makes me do everything that I do. And I know... that in the end, we'll end up together. Like this," He stopped, seemingly having reached a conclusion, "Strange, isn't it? How love supersedes everything that goes wrong?"

I listened intently, my mouth open slightly, hearing only his last few words. "You said love. You love me?" I smiled and tilted my head to the side playfully. I had been waiting for those words from him for... too long. I was more than prepared to say them back.

"Yeah, Cindy, I guess I do: I love you," he looked down at his knees, and I could tell he was waiting with bated breath for my reaction.

I wanted to jump around and shout and dance and sing, but I didn't, because that would have disrupted this perfect, silent, and so-far private exchange. Instead, I just smiled so hard my face hurt, but I couldn't help it, and said, "I love you too, Jimmy,"

"You do." It was more of an affirmation than a question.

He grabbed my hands happily, suddenly full of exhilaration. I closed my eyes as he started to lean in closer, and so did I; our faces were probably an inch apart when suddenly **_Beep beep beep! Beep beep beep!_**

I pulled back and Jimmy let go of my hands and pressed a button on his watch, and the alarm stopped.

"What was that for?" I asked angrily, slightly embarrassed, adding a fourth mark to the tally in my head of interrupted almost-kisses with Jimmy.

To my surprise, Jimmy just smiled, and pressed another button on his watch and the display opened. It read: **12:00 AM** **Tuesday, June 5th**.

He grabbed my right hand with his left, and with his free hand, he brushed my hair from in front of my eyes and then put his hand on the back of my neck, pulling me close again before saying, "Happy Birthday," and **finally**, pulling my lips to his.

My lips tingled and I felt an excited shiver run down my whole body.

**Jimmy's POV**

After a second or two, I noticed a total lack of noise in my surroundings. I pulled away a little from Cindy and opened my eyes.

She had a look of pure bliss on her face, and I suppose I did too, but that wasn't what had made me stop kissing her. I looked fearfully to my right, across the pool, and there, of course, was at least 30 kids staring our way, jaws dropped, whispering amongst themselves.

"Let's get out of here." I laughed a little and whispered to Cindy, who was eyeing the shell-shocked faces of our friends and classmates with mild amusement.

But then I noticed something odd. No one was laughing. It was like... they had known the whole time. They had known that we loved each other, even though we hadn't... and I found this pretty strange.

Cindy called my attention back to the present, "There's no way we'll ever live this down. Might as well just stay and enjoy the rest of the party."

"Oh," I was amazed at the ease with which she handled the situation, "In that case..."

I grabbed her hand and drew her back towards me; she smiled and closed her eyes, and I kissed her lightly again, not caring what anyone else thought. I was in heaven, and I didn't think I could ever come back down.

**Cindy's POV**

I was happy, truly happy. For the first time I could remember since I met the boy, I finally had what I wanted, and there was no place else I would rather be, and no one else I'd rather be with. My whole world was right here, with me, and I wouldn't let go, not for anything.

**Aww sappy ending. Who am I kidding? Sappy endings rule! Who would have thought that all of that could have come from such a cynical girl as me? I did have one author's note, marked by the , and it was that this part was strikingly similar to one of my other fics, "Honestly." I actually did that a lot: borrowing stuff from this fic (because I didn't think I would ever post it) and elaborating it to be put in other fics. Oh well. I think I've become a MUCH better writer since this one was written. I hope you think so too. Of course, you'd have to read my other fics to find out...**

**PLEASE comment and let me know if you liked it! It's just cruel not to. I would review your fic. ****grumble. Well that's all for now guys. I have no other fics written right now so you probably won't see me for a long time, but I'll still stop by to R&R every once in a while.**

**I love you all, mean reviews or not.**

**Thanks for reading,**

**Kle**


End file.
